St. Joseph
Catholic School

Welcome Back to School!

August 12, 2013


Dear Parents:

Welcome to the 2013-2014 school year. We thank you for your continued support. Largely due to the efforts of parents who have expressed confidence in the school, enrollment has increased again this school year, and the school year will start with 450 students in attendance.

As most of you know, Father McDuffie has been welcomed to St. Joseph Parish as our new pastor. Father has served as pastor of two parishes with schools: Mater Dolorosa in Independence and, most recently, at Sacred Heart in Baton Rouge. He came into the gym this morning and introduced himself to the children. Before entering the seminary, Father graduated from LSU as an engineer and worked as such for seven years. As a seminarian he studied in Rome. He is a very personable man and has expressed more that once that the school is the primary ministry in the parish. The staff at St. Joseph welcomes Father, and we are all looking forward to working with him for our students.

There are additions to staff this year with several new employees. New duties have been assigned to employees previously on staff.

Mrs. Tracy Owens will serve as a first grade homeroom teacher. She taught twelve years at St. Cletis Catholic Elementary School in Gretna. Mrs. Owens graduated from Our Lady of Holy Cross College. She has two children at St. Joseph.

Mrs. Stephanie Mares will teach third grade and comes to St. Joseph from Our Lady Queen of Peace in Mandeville where she has taught for the past seven years. She previously taught at St. Robert Bellarmine in Arabi. She is a graduate of Our Lady of Holy Cross College in New Orleans.

Mrs. Ashley Notariano will be the new seventh grade homeroom teacher. She taught six years at Holy Ghost and worked for the Tangipahoa School Board for ten years. She is an alumna of St. Joseph School. She has a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degrees from Southeastern.

Mrs. Krista Chiasson, formerly Miss Krista Lalande, will be the eighth grade homeroon teacher. She worked as the aide in first grade last year and replaced our two fifth grade teachers for their maternity leaves in the spring semester. She is a graduate of Southeastern.

The four new teachers are certified and degreed in the areas in which they are teaching.

Mrs. Lisa Eck is the new pre-kindergarten aide. She has a B.S. Elementary Education and taught in the Jefferson Parish School System for three years. She has a child at St. Joseph.

Mrs. Julissa Marshall was hired as the new kindergarten aide. She is serving in Mrs. Harwell’s class. She has a B. A. from Southeastern. She also has child at St. Joseph.

Mrs. Dorothy Piazza has been reassigned to the first grade as an aide for Mrs. Owens.

Mrs. Kelly Curtis will take Ms. Mims' place as the physical education teacher.

Mrs. Debra Caliva will work mainly with fifth graders and serve as an aide to the third grade.

In addition to new staff and new assignments, the school doubled the eighth grade homerooms. New reading text books were ordered for first through fifth grade classes. These are aligned with the new Core Curriculum being adopted by states across the country..

During the summer, the remaining split A/C units were installed in the main building. Ceilings were dropped, and lights were replaced in the science lab. The last two classrooms will are on the schedule to be renovated during the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks.

The sixth, seventh and eighth graders will be presented with new i-Pads and cases shortly.. Rules and regulations as to their care and use will be coming home. Students will be oriented the first week of school. Students will be responsible for their i-Pads and a repair agreement will also be presented to the students and their parents. These items are very expensive and need to be handled with care.

For a comprehensive view of the capital expenditures that have taken place at the school over the last seven years, visit the St. Joseph website and look at Planting Seeds that Grow.

A thank-you goes out to Mr. Tommy, Mr. Joe, and Nicholas and Christopher Ekker for their yeomen efforts this summer. Every year the school environment improves and our pledge to you is that these efforts will continue.

Thanks also go to Mr. Mike Fulmer at Berryland Campers. Mr. Fulmer sponsors our website throughout the year at no cost to us and provided a company to spray wash parts of the school. They cleaned the front entrance of the school, the gutter cans were blown out as they had become filled with debris, and the walkways were cleaned.

We appreciate your support and thank you for entrusting your children to our care. And may the Lord bless each of you and your families as we begin this new school year.



Gerard Toups, Ph. D.
Principal